Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 391 › Conversation 391-008

Nixon, Price & Kissinger on Vietnam War and Peace Negotiations

Wednesday, November 1, 1972 · 4:12 PM–4:23 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 10 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Price, Raymond K., Jr.; Kissinger, Henry A.; White House operatorConversation391-008 on Tape 391StartWednesday, November 1, 1972 at 4:12 PMEndWednesday, November 1, 1972 at 4:23 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 391-008 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Raymond K. Price, Jr., and consulted with Henry Kissinger via telephone to finalize a draft of his upcoming "Look to the Future" speech. The discussion primarily focused on refining the Vietnam section of the address, specifically addressing the ongoing peace negotiations, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu's concerns regarding U.S. withdrawal, and the planned cease-fire terms. Nixon provided revisions on the speech's tone and length to ensure the administration's stance on the conflict and political platform was clearly communicated before the 1972 election.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 41% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Alright, so first of all, what do you think he's going to do?

Well, he's going to walk up to the crow, and he's going to, you know, he's the most hard-wired carpenter we've got.

Okay, so he's going to walk up to the crow, and he's going to walk up to the crow,

Not really a problem at all.

It was a very good deal.

It was a hell of a problem actually.

Very good.

Let me ask you to take over.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Well, I'm thinking about some other things.

Okay.

Henry, I'm working, you know, Ray Price is the wizard who's working this morning trying to get this Vietnam section because I've got to beat that up because of this thing.

And I'd like for him to come over and talk to you about it now.

He's got the, are you free now?

What I don't understand is, well, I'll set it over at the, fine, okay, fine, if you work on that.

I already put this in pretty strong terms, in terms of, you know, that we're not going to use that.

So I'll throw it off on how it's going to be.

But I think the important thing is we've got to, either we don't have a soft record, we can't let that set in.

But anyway, we'll take a look at it.

I did work on it a while without it, too.

But, you know, it's fine.

Let's do it.

We'll wait and see what we can come up with.

Bye.

Probably won't lock it.

We're not allowed to.

I don't think you can break the balance of the monoclonal thread.

The monoclonal reflex, yeah, of course.

What do you mean?

She's got it all in there, baby.

Let me just go over it.

I can't help but worry.

Watch my head line.

That's the right tummy here.

it's about the right plan

I had thought, on page 7, that we could put a little bit more on it.

You know, a little bit more on it.

uh... uh...

I have not made.

I can't say I've not done that, but I have not made promises.

I have not.

I have not made promises.

I really haven't.

You see, I think just leave that out just a little bit.

There is no problem.

The other thing is, when you talk about bureaucratic meddling, I believe not.

I believe not, but that's a good law.

But I don't think so.

One line that I find, there is a cross, which is the end of the line.

It's at the top of the line.

And that is at 33% of the average rate.

And it goes over 50% of the average rate.

So I'm going to flip it back then.

And we must not let this happen.

I don't want people to put it on the board today.

That's all I have.

But this is the most important thing.

This is the whole thing, the whole set of directions that we need to get to.

We're going to have to do it.

But please, we ask that you help us out with our work.

We encourage you to do so.

This is why, throughout this entire year, I think you and I will be just as proud to know that most of the work we do is so much for you.

And I should mention that we're proud and proud of you.

We're proud of who you are.

and provides two-stage power to be able to deal with a lot of things.

If you look at the children, they can go to that place in about a week's time.

That is, every day they should be able to do it.

Now, what two is that they should be able to do?

They have to be able to do two power.

They have to be able to do it.

These micro-bodies that are already in the system have to be able to do a lot of things.

They have to be able to do a lot of things.

And this can go on very, very, very long.

It's quite a day of trial and error.

We'll be right back.

NARA Description

On November 1, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Henry A. Kissinger, and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:12 pm to 4:23 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 391-008 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 391-8

Date: November 1, 1972
Time: 4:12 pm - 4:23 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Raymond K. Price, Jr.

       The President’s schedule
            -Meeting with John Cardinal Krol

       Vietnam negotiations
            -Settlement agreement
                   -Krol’s stance
                   -Nguyen Van Thieu’s stance
                         -Surrender
                   -1972 election
                                               -14-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                             Conversation No. 391-8 (cont’d)

                  -Thieu

       The President’s speech, “Look to the Future”
            -Draft

The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger

[Conversation No. 391-8A]

       The President’s forthcoming speech, “Look to the Future”
            -Vietnam section
                  -Price’s draft
                  -Price meeting with Kissinger
                         -Time
                         -The President’s revisions
                               -Tone
                         -Kissinger’s review

[End of telephone conversation]

       The President’s forthcoming speech, “Look to the Future”
            -Vietnam section
                  -Reference to Laos
                         -Kissinger’s view
                  -Bombing halt
            -Contents
            -The President’s review
            -Length
            -Page seven

*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

             -Faith
             -1972 campaign
                    -Candidates
                         -Traditional behavior
                                -Spending promises
                                     -The President
                                             -15-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                                 Conversation No. 391-8 (cont’d)

              -Bureaucratic meddling

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************

       Vietnam negotiations
            -Settlement agreement
                   -Tone
                   -Cease-fire
                         -Indochina
                   -Prisoners of War [POWs]
                   -Election in South Vietnam
                         -Thieu
                               -Tenure
                   -Thieu
                         -Complaint
                         -Fear of US departure
                               -Compared to South Koreans

Price left at 4:23 pm.

The President talked with the White House operator at 4:23 pm.

[Conversation No. 391-8B]

[See Conversation No. 32-121]

[End of telephone conversation]

Also recorded on November 1, 1972

811-002 3:04 PM · 23 sec — Henry A. Kissinger and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:04 pm and 3:08 pm.
811-003 3:04 PM · 1 hr 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, John Cardinal Krol, White House photographer, Stephen B. Bull, Manolo Sanchez, and James McGettigan met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:04 pm and 4:07 pm.
811-004 4:07 PM · 1 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:07 pm and 11:59 pm.
032-121 4:23 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:23 pm.
391-009 4:25 PM · 49 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, White House operator, Ronald L. Ziegler, Raymond K. Price, Jr., and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:25 pm to 5:15 pm.
032-122 4:32 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:32 pm.
032-123 4:32 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:32 pm and 5:47 pm.
391-010 5:12 PM · 35 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Henry A. Kissinger, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:12 pm to 5:55 pm.

All 58 conversations from November 1, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 391-008, November 1, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/391-008 (accessed October 5, 2026).